Jesus, the light of the World

Imagine that you are lost. Make that: Imagine you are lost in a dark forest at night with no spotlight, no torch, not even a match. Just imagine that you are lost in the dark. That's pretty scary, and not just for those people who are afraid of the dark. But then you see a light in the distance. Anyone who is in that situation would walk towards the light. It gives you direction. The light symbolises safety, warmth and comfort, so we walk towards the light.
In the same way, Jesus is the light of the world. As he says in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.". As sinners we were stumbling in the darkness of the world with no knowledge of where we were going, or what we were doing. But Jesus has placed direction in our life. As the light of the world he has given us purpose and drive into what we are doing and where we are going.  Jesus said again in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

Jesus guides us on our path through this life here on earth. He guides us towards our eternal destination. Because of Jesus our sins are forgiven us and through him we receive eternal life. He has also been there and experienced our trials and tribulations. He has provided the perfect example for us to follow.  If we "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2), his light will show us the way through this life and into the life to come.

The Power of Prayer

What a great way to start in my commitment in writing at least 2 times a week :) It's Friday and I haven't written anything yet.

On Sunday night, the youth of our church were given the wonderful opportunity to listen to a powerful speech on the topic of prayer. The message of the speech was simple yet powerful. Prayer has the power to change people. It changes the person who is praying and the person they are praying for. There was so much in the speech that I don't know where to start in outlining the amazing message which she had to tell us (which I'll use as my excuse for not posting all week).

At the beginning of the speech we were given the example of a GPS or Tomtom which needs a good strong signal in order to direct you to your destination accurately. A Christian who is too far away from Jesus, is like a Tomtom which is too far away from the signal. It is important that we spend time getting to know Jesus and reading our Bible so that our signal becomes stronger, and we don't get lost. God has given us his word in the Bible. We have to listen to God in order to grow in wisdom and knowledge of what to pray for.

If we study the Bible and learn more about God. If we continue to listen to God, then we will want to also have contact with him and talk to Him. We do this by prayer. The more we learn about God. The busier we are with his word each and every day, then the more we want to pray and talk to God. The Bible is full of promises, if we learn more about these promises then we will also want to pray for the fulfillment of these promises.


Each of the people who went to the speech were also given a bookmark outlining 5 questions to ask during our Bible study.

1. What does the passage say about the Lord Jesus, the Christ of the scriptures?
2. Is there a warning?
3. Is there a promise?
4. What part do you like the most?
5. What can you use as encouragement for your prayers?

That was only just a little bit of the amazing message which we received that night. I hope that I have shared enough of it so that it makes sense and that others feel inspired also.

Fix your eyes on Jesus

I slept in this morning. As in, I slept through my alarm and woke up an hour later when I was supposed to be leaving the house. 25 minutes later when I was actually on the road it was extremely tempting to speed all the way to uni so that I might just get to class on time. But, instead, in a weird attempt to wake up, I sat back, cranked to music and sang along. To tell the truth, I am a bit of a hoon. It is an extremely difficult task for me to keep the speed limit and for some reason, I regularly find myself going 90 to 100 in a 70 zone (kilometers that is). Yep, that's right. I am a hoon. But I have recently invested in a great way to keep the laws of this country and keep the speed limit. I listen to music. By listening I mean really concentrating on the music and taking it all in. Instead of my car trips being a means to get from A to B, they are now a wonderful opportunity for me to listen to and soak up the music. Now instead of speeding all the time, I am so absorbed in what I am listening to (and sometimes even go under the speed limit).

Many people see Christianity as a list of dos and don'ts. Even as Christians we can focus on what we can do and what we cant do in our life of service to God rather than dedicating our whole life to the service of God. We do what we have been taught is right but often it is like we go through the motions. Sometimes it could almost be like the people Malachi is talking to in Malachi 1, the people who are still bring their offerings to the temple of the Lord but the offerings are defiled, and their heart is not in it. When we are focusing on what we can and cannot do it is very easy to leave our heart out of it. no one wants a list of dos and don'ts. But, if we fix our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), the focus shifts and our thankfulness to God for what he has done overflows. Then, we will think more about doing everything to the honour and glory of God, rather than what we can and cannot do. If we develop a hunger and thirst to know more about God and what he has done for us, if we fill our hearts and minds with Christ and his saving work, then the things which we do will be because they bring us closer to God. In our desire to learn more about God we will be doing our personal Bible study, we will go to Church each Sunday, we will attend weekly Bible Study sessions. We will be doing things which bring us closer to God and teach us more about him.

Keep cranking that music in your car. Instead of thinking about what you can and cannot do in your service to God, focus on Christ and in your desire to learn more about him and in doing so the way we live our life will not be seen as a burden, dictating what we can an cannot do, but rather we will be a joy because we want to do everything to the honour and glory of God.

Inspiration...

I have made the decision to post AT LEAST 2 times every week. I often use the excuse that I want my blog posts to be deep, meaningful and inspiring and because of that I have to wait for inspiration in order to write something.
NOW I am going to find inspiration. I am going to ensure that I am actively searching for words of wisdom so that I can share it with others and together we will be developing our knowledge and understanding of God and the world around us.

I am thankful for...

We have been blessed with so much. So many riches come to us each and every day yet how often do we sit down and think about what we have. How often do we sit down and think about what God has given us and how privileged we are.

I am thankful for:

• The faith which God has given me. This is probably the biggest blessing anyone would ever want to receive.
• My amazing family, who are currently not home and I really miss them but I am really, really thankful for who they are and the craziness which fills our house. I love you all xxx
• To add onto that: God fearing parents who have brought me up in a godly manner and provided a wonderful example of how to live in such a way that you do all to the glory and honor of God. (and God fearing grandparents...)
• My fantabulous friends. I love you guys too. We have so much fun together and the best part is that we don't have to see each other all the time to be able to pick up from last time and have loads of fun together.
• Also for the strong faith which my friends share and the conversations which we have regarding this faith and what we believe.
• My Job, and the people I care for. They are all so loving and full of life... even though I'm studying to become a professional, I love my job so much I wouldn't actually mind dropping out to work full time...
• The church we go to:
• The supportive church family and the communion of saints
• the strong youth connections so that there isn't temptation to find fun which is not to the honor and glory of God
• The confessions we have to ensure that the preaching and teaching has a scriptural basis.
• and the connections it has with the school I went to and the school my siblings still attend.
• The numerous financial and material blessings we have:
• Money to support myself
• A car which works and being able to buy fuel to make sure it continues to work
• a house over my head each night. Wait to add onto that... a big house with plenty of room, situated on land so that we can have horses and ride motorbikes (and everything we have on the land)
• Clothing and footwear in abundance.
• Food and drink with plenty to spare.
• 3 meals/day with plenty of food to eat in between
• clean, hygienic drinking water.
• abundant sources of food (the local IGA, Coles, Fresh Fruit and Vegie place, the farmer we get our meat from...)
• A computer with internet access so that I can write all my assignments and when inspired write blog posts.
• The rain we have received so far this winter. We have truly been blessed with so much rain, especially in comparison to what has fallen in previous years.
• the possibility to study and get a degree.
• opportunity to immerse myself in the creative mediums of music and art.
• opportunities for holidays. Although I am really hanging out for one of these, I am actually kinda planning a small escape in the near future. Some people do not have this opportunity at all so it is something that we can be thankful for.
• the political stability of Australia.
• the Freedom of religion in Australia - the opportunity to serve God without fear.
• sunny skies (even if it's raining the sun still manages to peek through)
• a sense of humor
• the ability to speak my mind without worrying about what others think
• the advances in technology so that so many things are possible without too much effort (how else could I talk to Mum this morning even thought she is 1300km away)
• electricity
• phones
• computers
•  Ipods (and music)
• internet
• and the list goes on... only I should get back to work. Which reminds me:
• Time. God has given us time to do things. We should even be thankful for that.

So what does your list look like?